


Love, Sokka

by chronorider



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Slow Burn, like extremely so slow if i can keep my attention span going, love simon au because i'm creative like that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-06-09 13:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15268464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chronorider/pseuds/chronorider
Summary: One school. Like, two gay guys. Fortunately, they're both cute and nice when they try. Unfortunately, they're both terrible at romance and being gay in practice. So this could take a while. Sokka's gonna find out who "Blue" is if it kills him.





	1. Aaaaaaaand, Send

_They call me Sokka, it’s pronounced with an –okka_

No.

_Hey there, I’m Sokka! I was just wondering_

Ugh, no.

_yo u dtf?_

Tragically that wasn’t the worst draft.

Sokka groaned into his hands, propping his elbows on either side of the laptop on his desk, peeking at the screen through his fingers. The pure white light of the unwritten email burned his eyes, like it was mocking his inability to strike up conversation. Sitting up, he decided to close it for now, instead looking back at the post he was struggling to reply to.

The post in question had appeared earlier that day on the blog _Ba Sing Secrets_ , the gossip forum for every student in Ba Sing Se High School. It had quickly become the subject of schoolwide speculation because its content brought a shocking concept to light:

_Gay people exist?!_

Sokka read the post for what he imagined was the hundredth time since Katara had showed it to him that morning.

_Why does life have to be such a rollercoaster?_

_Just constant ups and downs with no time to breathe or to take in your surroundings, full of people screaming and clinging to each other because they don’t know what’s coming next. It’s even worse at the back of the rollercoaster, which is where I constantly seem to find myself. I see the people in front of me yelling but I don’t see why. Everyone else seems to find something to shout about and I can’t see anything worth even speaking about._

_The most annoying part is the fact that most of the guys who are just like me have found something to yell about, but it’s always a girl. I don’t see myself ever yelling about a girl._

_I just wanna find a boy that’s worth yelling for._

_(don’t comment if you’re just gonna say I’m dramatic, I get enough of that at home)_

_Blue_

Of course, within hours everyone had been theorising as to who this mysterious “Blue” is. Sokka’s friends all weighed in on the matter that day when they went out for their End of Summer lunch. Aang thought it was Teo, the sweet kid in the wheelchair that had never asked a girl out. Katara thought maybe it was Haru, he was so handsome and quiet. Toph figured it was one of those two rich guys that are always together, Chan and Ruon-Jian. People always said they’d make a cute couple, not that the two were ever happy to hear it.

Sokka hadn’t given his thoughts, because there was only one name that came to mind when he asked himself who in school seemed gay.

It’s pronounced with an –okka.

When Katara had awoken him by bursting in his door proclaiming “I never knew that I knew a gay guy!”, Sokka’s heart had skipped a beat out of fear that she had somehow gotten a hold of his deeply inappropriate search history, only calming down when it became clear that Sokka was not the gay guy she was referring to.

But then who is?

The only clue was his email attached to the post: [bluespirit314@gmail.com](mailto:bluespirit314@gmail.com). Not much of a clue at all to be honest, but Sokka would have to make do. Seeing that post had been a surreal experience, to say the least. To Sokka, being gay had seemed to be something that existed only for him and those guys on _Queer Eye_. Nothing and no one in his life had ever given him reason to believe that there were other gay guys in his town, so the elusive Blue was a reassurance that Sokka hadn’t known he needed. It was a sign that he wasn’t alone. And he wasn’t about to give that up.

Which brought him to this email. Or rather, the blank slate that he wished the universe would turn _into_ an email. He needed to achieve a perfect equilibrium of casual and genuine, of fun and serious, of lonely gay energy and supportive gay energy. It needed to be a good first impression. Otherwise, Blue would simply delete the email and block Sokka immediately, and Sokka couldn’t afford to lose this chance to talk to another gay guy.

Of course, Blue was anonymous for a reason, and Sokka didn’t need to think hard about why. Coming out is scary.

Apparently.

Hypothetically.

Or so Sokka had heard.

He really needed to find out for himself one of these days.

Today was not that day however, and with that thought in mind Sokka realised that messaging Blue from [sokkaboomerang420@hotmail.com](mailto:sokkaboomerang420@hotmail.com) might not be a smart move for someone who was in the closet and wanted to stay that way. He would need a new email, a presentable email, an approachable email, one that a person would want to reply to.

**Welcome to Gmail,[wangfire@gmail.com](mailto:wangfire@gmail.com)**

Killed it.

Now unless Blue happened to be Aang or Katara, the only two people present for six year old Sokka’s declaration that he was the superhero “Wang Fire”, Sokka’s identity was safe.

And now all that was left was to actually write the goddamn email.

Sokka had been agonising over this for a solid hour, it was time for ACTION. What was that junk Aang liked to say, “Speak from the heart” or some shit? That little hippy tended to be pretty on the ball when it came to feelings and stuff, so Sokka was willing to take an Aang-style approach to this. Okay, write from the heart, write from the heart…

_Hey Blue,_

_So I saw your post. The one about the rollercoaster. And I just wanted to tell you, I get it. I especially get how you DON’T get it. I mean, girls? They’re fine and all, but I just don’t get the appeal. I wanna shout about boys, just like you do. Why is that such a weird thing to say? Idk. I’m not even sure where I’m going with this. I think I just liked the idea of talking to someone about, y’know, gay stuff. So I figured, duck it, why not shoot you a message? Well, yeah, that’s all. If you ever wanna talk about all that stuff we both don’t get, just hit me up._

_Wang._

Send.

Sokka’s heart raced as Gmail confirmed that his email had been sent. He had put himself out there, he had taken the first step. That counts for something, right?

…

“Ah fuck, I said ‘duck’ didn’t I.”

* * *

 

A few hours after Sokka had managed to get to sleep after spending a few hours thinking of everything wrong with the email he had sent, Zuko awoke to a notification on his phone.

“ _Hey Blue_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow a love simon au real fuckin creative but you know what it suits them and they deserve it


	2. Birthday Blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Zuko recovers from his not-quite-amazing birthday and prepares for the first day of the school year, he notices a message on his phone. He talks to like three people and it's not from any of them, so what gives?

Outside of a locked bedroom door, a sharp knock was followed by a sing-song call.

“Wakey-wakey Zuzu, hope you’re still alive in there. You remember the deal, if you die I get your Xbox.”

“Azula, what’s wrong with _your_ Xbox?” came a groggy voice in reply from under tangled bedsheets.

“It’s the principle of the thing.” Zuko could almost hear his sister’s smirk through the walls. “Anyway, get up, we need to leave soon.”

“Can’t you just leave me here to suffer?” Zuko groaned, his head throbbing with each word.

“You know I’d love to, but if you miss the bus you’ll need to call Dad to take you to school, and I bet he’d love to know how you managed to get a hangover.”

Zuko practically launched himself into a sitting position, quickly placing a hand on his forehead to keep his aching brain from launching out. “Okay, I’m up, I’m up.”

He listened to a soft snicker turning into Azula’s footsteps returning to her room, and sighed as he waited for his stomach to stop twisting.

This was exactly why Zuko had _not_ wanted to try alcohol.

Unfortunately for him, the night before, as the clock struck midnight heralding the 20th of September, he had turned eighteen, and Azula had insisted that he officially _had_ to lose his “alcohol virginity” before that. She and her friends had also insisted on joining him, for “moral support”.

“You know that being eighteen doesn’t make it legal, right?” he had asked her, only to be met with giggles from Azula and Ty Lee, and a deadpan response from Mai:

“It’s not about _legality_ , Zuko, it’s about making sure you’re not still a _complete_ loser when you turn eighteen.”

With tremendous effort, Zuko heaved himself from his bed, waited for the world to stop spinning, and made his way to the bathroom to see how he looked. Looking in the mirror over his sink, he reached a verdict.

Bad.

At least back when he was a _complete_ loser he hadn’t looked like he had been hit by a car. Thanks a lot, Dad’s vodka.

It was time for damage control. He could brush his teeth and comb his hair, but dealing with the pale (even for him) skin and the overall essence of death radiating from him would be more difficult. Especially when it felt like his brain was trying to break out of his skull every two seconds.

As he forced his poor hairbrush through the knots in his hair, Zuko spotted out of the corner of his eye a notification flashing on his phone, which was… odd. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee had all been with him at midnight, so he had received drunken birthday wishes from them. Uncle Iroh had of course texted him the second the clock struck 12, as he did every year. It was _hardly_ Dad, whose usual M.O. if he remembered Zuko’s birthday was an “Ah, you’re expecting something I suppose”, followed by pulling out whatever the smallest note in his wallet was and handing it to Zuko with disinterest. Zuko didn’t exactly have the largest social circle. So who could be messaging him so early in the morning?

He unlocked his phone, winced at the bright light on his weary eyes, and registered a name.

_What the fuck kinda name is “Wang Fire”?_

Spam emails had really been getting desperate. Zuko’s thumb hovered over the delete button, but decided he may as well read the damn thing, just in case it was important.

_Hey Blue_

Wait.

 _So I saw your post_.

**Wait _._**

_The one about the rollercoaster._

Oh no.

Oh no no no no no.

A post about a rollercoaster could only mean one thing, but Zuko prayed that it didn’t. Checking what the email from “Wang” was in reply to, Zuko’s fear was confirmed.

He had posted _it_.

The vent post he had written and never planned to post. The one about the _things_. The… _gay things_.

Zuko’s heart jumped up to his throat, in competition with his head to see what could race faster. Scrolling through the Ba Sing Secrets post, Zuko’s panic abated slightly as he saw he at least hadn’t drunkenly edited or added to the post, and it was still signed with his go-to alter ego “Blue”, and linked to his side email. There were no indicators of his identity.

Zuko allowed himself to breathe. It was okay. He was okay. Like, sure he had just posted something deeply private on a public forum, but at least he hadn’t _outed_ himself. He should have known that much, given that Azula hadn’t kicked down his door that morning demanding all of his money in exchange for keeping his sexuality a secret from their father.

Because that was the one thing that Zuko was _truly_ afraid of. He’d known for years that he wasn’t exactly sold on girls, and that boys had held an indescribable appeal to him, but he’d known for even longer how his father felt about such… feelings.

Ozai wasn’t ordinarily the kind to make his thoughts known in impassioned speeches, he preferred to convey his opinions through a series of grunts and growls. This was one of the only things he and Zuko had in common.

But Zuko and Azula had learned how to read their father, and as a result they could tell what things he did and did not approve of, even when he did not verbalise it. For instance, they knew he would nod slowly if he was content with their report cards. They knew he squinted slightly if he did not care for their tone of voice. And they knew that when Azula mentioned one of Ty Lee’s sisters moving in with her girlfriend, Ozai’s eye had twitched in a way that told them this was a conversation topic that should not be approached in his company again.

And so, even as Zuko became more and more aware that he was… not straight, he also became more and more aware that his father _never_ needed to know. Then again, Zuko wasn’t sure he wanted _anyone_ to know.

That was why he had written this post, this highly personal post. He had wanted to lay out his feelings clearly, even if he couldn’t exactly verbalise them. He had written and rewritten it a dozen times, and when he was content that it conveyed what he wanted it to, he had saved it as a draft with the intent of letting it build up virtual dust for the next few decades.

Drunk Zuko had had other ideas it seemed.

Sober Zuko gave a wary glance at the comment section, and felt himself relax as he saw that the only comment was an anonymous “lol what”, and honestly, that’s fair. How else were people supposed to react to such a melodramatic spiel after all?

Except, Zuko then remembered, someone else _had_ reacted to it. The mysterious Wang Fire.

Returning to the email, Zuko read it in full.

And then read it again.

_If you ever wanna talk about all that stuff we both don’t get, just hit me up._

Holy _shit_.

Not only was there another gay guy at his school, but there was a gay guy who wanted to _talk to Zuko_.

Zuko bit his lip. On the one hand, following through on The Post™ wasn’t particularly conducive to keeping his identity a secret. The smart thing to do would be to delete the post, and the email, and pretend it had never happened.

On the other hand though, having someone to talk to about all these things did sound appealing. I mean, who else was Zuko supposed to talk to? He’d considered telling his uncle, but Uncle Iroh’s house was his safe haven, he couldn’t take the chance that suddenly that door would be closed to him if Iroh didn’t approve of what Zuko told him.

An anonymous pen-pal might be exactly what Zuko needed. Unfortunately, that would require… _talking_. To a _person_. A _human_ person. Zuko’s least favourite kind. At least Wang was apparently gay and therefore predisposed to being nice about gay things.

He hoped.

As his thumb inched closer to the Reply button, Zuko’s eyes wandered up to the corner of his phone screen.

8:05am. Five minutes before the bus would arrive on their street.

“Fuck.”

 

Zuko made it on board just before the bus left, which, considering his hangover, was frankly a significant achievement, and did what he always did, ignore the bus driver’s glare at being held up, and avoid eye contact with any of the other kids on the bus. He collapsed into a seat behind Azula, and immediately extracted his phone. If he was going to reply to Wang, it would have to be now, lest the indecision plague him all day at school.

“Hey Zuko, are you experiencing some kind of romantic hardship?”

Zuko’s eyes darted up to see a pair of brown eyes peering over the back of the seat in front of him beside Azula’s. “What?”

“Your birthday was yesterday, so you’re a Virgo, right?” Ty Lee said, propping her elbows up on the seat. “Your horoscope predicts _romantic strife_.”

Azula laughed, looking over her shoulder at her brother. “Please, the only _romantic strife_ for our Zuzu is the betrayal of the vodka he fell in love with.”

Zuko groaned and closed his eyes, trying not to feel queasy on the bumpy road. “I did _not_ love it, I was just drunk.”

“Yeah, you would need to love it to _get_ as drunk as you did, Zuko. That’s how it works.” Even with his own eyes shut, Zuko could sense Azula’s rolling. “You weren’t even a fun drunk.”

“Wow, sorry,” he drawled, using his practiced sarcasm to convey that he was not, in fact, sorry.

“I disagree!” Ty Lee chimed in, sitting back down to look out the window at the passing trees. “Zuko was very complimentary when he was drunk.”

“I was?”

“You said you loved my ponytail about eight times.”

“Oh…” It could have been worse. “Did I say… anything else worth mentioning?” Zuko asked tentatively.

“Nothing much,” Ty Lee said brightly, checking her hair in the window. “You did say you weren’t looking forward to starting school today because ‘there’s so much stuff you don’t get’. Are you worried about math or something? I know I am, on our last test I totally screwed up, you wouldn’t believe…”

Zuko let her spiral into a tangent as he registered what she’d said. _So much stuff I don’t get_ …

…

 _Just hit me up_.

With newfound determination, Zuko opened the email again, right as school came into sight.

_Dear Wang,_

_I don’t get why most guys love to get drunk. I just tried it and I don’t even remember any of it and now my head hurts. Let’s just call that the most current thing that I don’t get, if that’s what you wanna talk about._

_Blue_

Zuko felt as though someone else was piloting his hand as he typed the message out and hit send. Call it an act of God, or Freddie Mercury, or somebody. Either way, the message was sent. Now there was only thing to do.

So Zuko prepared to agonise over the email for the rest of the day.

He was so busy with his mental preparations in fact that he failed to take in the movement on the bus around him as he dismounted in a daze. He didn’t see the bus driver continue to glare at him. He didn’t hear Azula tell him he’d forgotten his bag, or see Ty Lee pick it up for him.

And he didn’t notice the boy with a short ponytail who had sat at the back of the bus. He didn’t notice that boy taking his phone out of his pocket. And he didn’t see the boy’s eyes widen at the notification on the screen.

_1 new message from Blue_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "One chapter a month", I say, posting Chapter 2 at 11pm on August 31st. Which is ironically Zuko's birthday in this fic. I procrastinated so hard this fic entered real time

**Author's Note:**

> wow a love simon au real fuckin creative but you know what it suits them and they deserve it


End file.
